-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Even after his debilitating stroke eight years ago , even after all the subsequent public appearances and New Year 's Eves when his speech was slurred and his once-impeccable timing seemed to have checked out for eternity , Dick Clark still appeared somehow above and beyond normal physical laws .

For decades , we had doubted he would ever grow old .

This past December 31 , you watched and listened as he counted backwards for yet another year , missing no numbers on the short path to 2012 . And you thought to yourself : This man can not be stopped . Like the promise of the U.S. Postal Service : reliable , no matter what the weather , no matter what time of day , month or decade . For almost 60 years , excluding the one immediately after his 2004 stroke , reliable and unstoppable was what Clark was .

That is , until Wednesday , when Clark died at age 82 . For those of a certain age , writing those last six words seems so improbable that you 're not sure you want to expose them to light . Acknowledging them is like sealing a door to youthful paradise when what 's now old and obsolete is forever sexy , frisky and fun .

Some of you may find this bewildering . You 're likely among those who knew Clark only as somebody your parents and grandparents watched on TV , hovering in a booth over Times Square every New Year 's Eve , interrupting some pop music acts to tell people the Ball Was About to Drop on whatever the last calendar year was . As indelible as this gig was , it was only one of many Clark had as game-show host , restaurant-chain proprietor , media mogul and music impresario on `` American Bandstand . ''

It was in that latter role that most of us born after World War II cherish him the most . Between 1952 -LRB- when he was a frequent substitute for regular host Bob Horn when it was just called `` Bandstand '' -RRB- and 1988 -LRB- the year before he yielded hosting duties in the show 's final year to Dave Hirsch -RRB- , Clark presided over `` American Bandstand , '' the most enduring and iconic of television programs , on which teenagers danced to popular records and watched pop stars -- from Chuck Berry to Chubby Checker , from Bo Diddley to Bobby Darin , from Jackie Wilson to Annette Funicell -- lip-synch their hits .

First broadcast from Philadelphia , the show went from local to national in August 1957 and every weekday afternoon from that month until 1963 , Bandstand was probably the only thing you saw on television between school and supper . Call it the mid-20th century manner of containing multitudes . And , for generations of kids , of marking time .

And we kept marking time with `` American Bandstand , '' even as it moved from weekdays to Saturday afternoons and then to California , losing much of the funky charm of its Philadelphia days . Yet its format remained as predictable and comfortable as an old sweater . Kids still danced , records were still rated and pop acts from the Beach Boys to the Beastie Boys still came to play .

Clark had begun building his empire in the late 1950s with a weekly Saturday night program of live , lip-synched performances , `` The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech Nut Show . '' It did n't last long , but Clark , as noted , was unstoppable . He had another spinoff series , `` Where the Action Is , '' in the 1960s and soon became as unavoidable as the weather by hosting `` The $ 10,000 Pyramid '' -LRB- which grew in other versions to $ 25,000 and $ 100,000 -RRB- and co-hosting with one-time Philadelphia colleague Ed McMahon , `` TV 's Bloopers and Practical Jokes . ''

He invented the annual `` American Music Awards '' and `` Dick Clark 's New Year 's Rockin ' Eve '' -LRB- first broadcast in 1972 -RRB- . These and other Clark productions enjoyed longevity that seemed as inexplicable and impregnable as Clark 's youthful glow .

Clark 's personality throughout these years never wavered . Even as his entertainment empire grew to include radio shows -LRB- `` Rock , Roll & Remember '' -RRB- and restaurants -LRB- `` Dick Clark 's American Bandstand Grill '' -RRB- , he remained the personable young man keeping the party from getting out of hand .

He seemed born knowing the secret of lasting long on TV : No idiosyncrasies , no temperament and no fretting . If you can keep your personality as smooth as your complexion , nobody will ask you to leave their living rooms , not even if the friends you bring along with you have strange hairdos and make even stranger music . And if you can adapt such a persona to places where such exotic personages as Little Richard and Jim Morrison hang out , you can carry it anywhere for a long time , making it look easier than it likely was .

It was only in those last years , when Clark insisted on dropping by our homes despite his frail condition , that it looked harder . And even here , there was a kind of stoic grace that touched you , even if you started to wonder , if for only a second , how much longer he could continue . Now we know . Another myth , a grail of durability , drifts away , leaving us all feeling a tad more vulnerable -- and , maybe , much emptier -- than we did last New Year 's .

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gene Seymour .

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Gene Seymour : It seemed that Dick Clark would defy physical laws , last forever

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Clark was known for New Year 's show , but more so for `` American Bandstand ''

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Seymour : Show was a must-see for kids in the '50s and '60s ; it endured even till the '80s

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Seymour : Clark was smooth and with staying power ; his loss points out our vulnerability